Engitix Ltd (‘Engitix’), a biotechnology company with a portfolio
of drug discovery programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours using
its proprietary human extracellular matrix (ECM) platform, today
announces the appointment of two biotech industry leaders as
Scientific Advisors: Adrian S. Ray, PhD, and Scott Turner, PhD.
These appointments support Engitix’s evolution
as it harnesses its ECM platform to discover new targets and
biomarkers for therapeutic benefit and advances towards clinical
development.
Dr Giuseppe Mazza, CEO of Engitix
said, “We are pleased to welcome Dr Adrian Ray and Dr
Scott Turner as new scientific advisors. Their combined industry
insights, strong translational science and small molecule and
biologic drug discovery experience across cancer and fibrosis
disease will enhance our R&D efforts. Their strategic guidance
will be invaluable as we continue to advance discoveries from our
proprietary ECM platform technologies into transformational
therapies for patients with fibrosis and solid tumours.”
Dr Adrian Ray has over two decades of experience
in biotech working at Gilead, Nimbus, Morphic and, most recently,
serving as Chief Scientific Officer at Third Harmonic Bio. He has
provided leadership for small molecule drug discovery, nonclinical
development and translation across therapeutic areas contributing
to numerous IND and successful worldwide registrational filings. Dr
Ray completed his graduate studies in the Pharmacology Department
at Yale University, having received his undergraduate degree in
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University
of California at Santa Cruz graduating with highest honours.
Dr Adrian Ray
said, “Engitix has an unparalleled understanding of
the extracellular matrix. I'm excited to work with the team on
leveraging their deep data set to identify new therapeutics for
fibrosis and solid tumours.”
Dr Scott Turner is currently the Chief
Scientific Officer at Arda Therapeutics. Prior to joining Arda,
Scott served as CSO at Pliant Therapeutics, where he played a
pivotal role in the creation of Pliant's fibrosis discovery
platform and spearheaded the development of their anti-fibrotic
pipeline. His innovative approaches, including pioneering the use
of single-cell data to dissect drug mechanisms of action and
driving an advanced biomarker strategy, led to remarkable successes
in achieving clinical proof of concept. Prior to Pliant, Dr Turner
led research and development at KineMed Inc. a platform technology
company developing translational biomarkers in fibrosis and
metabolic disease. Dr Turner gained his PhD from University of
California, Berkeley in Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology.
Dr Scott Turner
said, “In spite of recent advances, fibrosis
remains a significant unmet medical need. New strategies are needed
to address this challenging problem. I am excited to work with the
Engitix team and advisors to leverage their novel ECM platform to
identify new treatments.”
Engitix new scientific advisors bring extensive
scientific and industry expertise and diverse perspectives that
will complement and enhance the knowledge of its original eight
Scientific Advisors, who are renowned global academics and clinical
leaders across diseases of the gastrointestinal system, skin and
lung fibrosis and cancers.
Current scientific advisors also include
Professor Massimo Pinzani, MD, PhD, FAASLD, FRCP, Alex Lugovskoy,
PhD, Doug Thorburn, MD, Emmanuel Tsochatzis, MD, MSc, FEBTM, FRCP,
PhD, Tu Vinh Luong, MD, FRCPATH, Antonio Di Sabatino, MD,
Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau, MD, PhD, FRCP and Giuseppe Fusai, MD.
Biographies for all scientific advisors are available on Engitix’s
website here.
Engitix also recently expanded its leadership
team with the appointment of Matthew Edwards, Ph.D., as Senior Vice
President of Discovery Sciences, and Emma Huang, Ph.D., as Vice
President of Data Sciences.
Notes to Editors:
About Engitix Ltd
Engitix is progressing a portfolio of internal
and partnered drug discovery programmes in fibrosis and solid
tumours using its pioneering human extracellular matrix (ECM)
platform. Engitix patient-centric ECM platform is underpinned by an
extensive bioarchive, one of the world’s largest ECM databases, and
best-in-class, human in vitro 3-D cell culture bioassays.
Together, these unique capabilities transform its ability to
identify new targets and biomarkers, investigate novel mechanisms
of action, and more accurately predict the efficacy of therapeutic
candidates. It has a strategic drug discovery partnership with
Dompé farmaceutici where Engitix’s internal drug development
programmes are being accelerated by leveraging Dompé’s AI-enabled
high performance computing platform, Exscalate, and drug discovery
and development collaborations with Takeda in advanced fibrotic
liver diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated
steatohepatitis (MASH), and in fibrostenotic Inflammatory Bowel
Disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative
colitis.
Established to commercialise cutting-edge
research from the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health,
Division of Medicine, University College London (UCL), Engitix is
headquartered in Westworks, White City Place, London, UK. It has
raised more than $60m in equity from investors including Netherton
Investments (a fund investing on behalf of Mike Platt) and Dompé
farmaceutici S.P.A.
For more information, please visit
www.engitix.com
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For more information:
At the CompanyGiuseppe Mazza,
CEOE: giuseppe.mazza@engitix.com
Media enquiries (for Engitix)Sue
Charles, Charles ConsultantsT: +44 7986 726585 E:
sue@charles-consultants.com